Her Velvet Vase
by idiotpilot
Summary: He's rich, he's handsome. He's got everything he wants and more. So why on Merlin's Beard would he want a Mudblood changing all that, then? Dramoine.
1. Paper Faces on Masquerade

**A/N:** Hello! Gosh, I know it's been eons since an update, and I apologise! Sorry to say this isn't an update to Never alone, but I'll get working on that as soon as possible. I've been seriously lacking in both inspiration and motivation, so I guess that attributes to my story deficit. I hope you enjoy this one though. I don't know how far I want to bring this, so tell me what you think, 'kay!

**-fcouk**

**Disclaimer:** No, I'm not J. K. Rowling. No, I don't own any of these characters. Yes, that sucks.

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**Paper faces on masquerade.**

A masked ball. Whose _stupid_ idea was that, anyway?

Draco sniffled indignantly as he raised his glass to his mouth, the contents spilling into his mouth and dousing his tongue with the pleasant pang of sweetness.

His expression, however, gave one the impression that he had just drunk some Basilisk pee.

Where he was, the music that was being played was marginally audible, but it was presumably Muggle music.

How terribly uncouth.

What was the term for it? Rock? Why on Merlin's beard did they name a music genre after a stone?

Draco shifted his feet a little to get a better view of his peers waltzing about through the window.

Grimacing to himself, his glacial eyes surveyed the room with dismal disapproval. There were clumps of students littered around on the marble floor, people dressed in bright, lurid colors, tight long dresses, and oversized, tacky-looking dress robes.

Pitiful, really. The fact that people were willing to participate in such frivolous affairs irked him.

He gulped down a contemptuous scoff with another swig of pumpkin juice.

The sun had risen in a pool of crimson and gold, spilling light all over the school grounds. The lake was amber-tinted, and Draco could have sworn that the moment he turned, a tentacle had just disappeared under its murky depths. But he had more pressing matters.

This was ridiculous, Draco thought to himself. Where was Pansy? He needed some company, however nasal or annoying.

As if to answer him, there was a hydraulic swoosh as the glass door leading to the balcony suddenly burst open, and a girl marched out. A pandemonium of sound followed her out, cut off again right when the doors banged shut.

Draco cast a furtive look towards the dramatic entrée as perfume wafted delicately in his direction. Although her face was hidden by a mask, he could tell she was crying, her nose red and hair amok.

She trekked off to the other end the moment she spotted him, keen to put a bit of distance between the both of them, and continued weeping.

Draco turned back to look at the shrubbery that rioted in the balcony's garden, completely disinterested. It was expected that in a ball, people of lesser competence were rejected by others. She had probably dolled up for hours, only to be turned down by her crush. And it was none of his business, anyway.

However, he had trouble focusing on the flowers he was admiring. He blamed it on the ruckus the girl was making. He glanced back at her, eyes inquisitive and amused as he took another swig from his glass.

Although she was generally a mess, she wore an ostentatious evening gown that looked like molten gold. Her hair looked as though it had originally been pinned up in an elegant style, but now it was a shock of untidy pale brown hair sticking out of her head in all directions. She had obviously, Draco concluded, put in a lot of effort in her appearance.

It was not characteristic of him to do so, but he was compelled to make a snide remark. The girl, however innocent and despaired, just seemed deserving of it.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Granger! Victim of a lover's spat?

"_Again_?" he hastened to add.

The girl swiveled around to stare at him blankly, seemingly robbed of speech.

"Don't take it to heart, Mudblood. It's only natural that a boy with any common sense in his head would reject you. You just have to learn to get used to it."

"What," was her incredulous reply, "was that?"

A roguish grin played on Draco's face. Ooh, a sensitive spot.

"I said, GET USED TO IT, honey."

"What business has it got to do with _you_?"

Her voice was tremulous as she spoke.

"Oh, trust me," Draco replied, "the moment you stalked in and ruined my peace with your obnoxious sniveling, it became my business."

She looked positively agog. Shock was replaced with contempt the moment she laid eyes on his platinum-blonde hair.

"_You_!"

Draco's chest swelled with self-satisfaction.

"_Me_!" He mocked, his voice rising a few pitches.

"You – You better not ruin my night!" She warned. Even from where he was, he could feel the fury radiating from Hermione Granger.

"Doesn't look like I have to."

Hermione's eyes narrowed to slits. A hand, for a moment, hovered over her pocket, presumably where her wand was. The hand dropped.

"I'm _not_ going to stoop to your level." She growled, pivoting on her heel and stalking off.

"Pity. I was hoping for some company." Draco sighed in mock disappointment.

No reply.

"So, how was it? Did he break it to you slowly, or was his rejection slapped smack into your face?"

"It's none of your business!"

"I'll take it was the latter?"

"No!"

"The former then! Either way you still weren't wanted, so why so fussy?"

"I wasn't rejected!"

"Tut tut. It's alright, Granger. Everyone gets –"

"I WASN'T!"

Draco sipped his pumpkin juice placidly as if they were having a chatter between old pals.

"Well, someone's being sensitive."

"Leave me alone, alright?"

Draco chuckled, spurring an absolutely exasperated glare from Hermione.

"Look – I'm tired, and frazzled. I am utterly devastated because I took almost forever to find a spell to fix my hair, I had to find the right gown, and I took _hours _to prepare for this _stupid _ball, only to find that the boy I've had a crush on for _ages_ was frenching with another girl, my feet hurt from wearing these ridiculous heels and my make-up is smeared because I've been crying and let me reiterate that I am tired so _I don't need this right now, alright!" _

She drew in her breath with a long hiss, her eyes gleaming dangerously through the holes of her mask.

Draco merely stood and stared, not knowing what to make of this sudden show of vulnerability.

Even her glare was half-hearted, as if she were simply too exhausted to inject any real dose of vindictiveness into it. She turned her head away, tucking it in her hands as she placed her elbows on the railing.

The silence between them was saturated with music and sweet perfume. Draco inhaled sharply, and it wasn't because of the chilly air.

So this, Draco wondered, was the girl everyone was talking about.

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A/N: I wrote this at 5am, so this is probably going to be edited a lot. Tell me what you think:)


	2. Would you believe a 5 watt bulb?

**A/N:** I present to you, ** Would you believe a 5-watt bulb?**, Chapter 2 of Her Velvet Vase! Thank you very much for the reviews!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own J.K Rowling's characters, however badly I'd like to.

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**Would you believe a 5-watt bulb?**

She's got a _lot_ of attitude under that big hair...

"Are you going to eat that?"

Ron jabbed his fork at Hermione's bacon. When she sighed exasperatedly and shook her head, he more than readily impaled it with his weapon and did the same to his own eggs, a piece of apple pie and some chunks of potatoes before shoveling the whole lot into his mouth, munching as graciously as a troll.

"Ron, do you _have_ to do that?" Hermione said wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"_What_?" Some crusts ricocheted out of his mouth, and although Hermione was sitting diagonally across him with a mound of mashed potatoes placed between them, she could imagine bits of his lunch hitting her face. She grimaced.

"As I was saying," she continued, turning to Harry, still glaring at Ron from the corner of her eye, "Hagrid probably won't be taking today's lesson for _Care of Magical Creatures_. I think it's because–"

"Why?" Ron's eyes had widened and his jaw was still working vigorously. Hermione threw him another scathing look.

"I _think _it's because he's been bitten. I saw him last night."

"By what?" Harry asked, disconcerted. He glanced at the teachers' table and as expected, he could only see Professor Flitwick, Binns, Sprout and McGonagall, the last peering sternly over her glasses at the students.

"I don't know. Was at the Astronomy tower when I saw him, his hand had swelled to the size of… of…"

"A dustbin lid?" Harry suggested.

"No, that's when it's normal."

"Right,"

"It was the size of-"

"We've established its size, 'Mione, get on with it!" Ron interrupted patiently, getting up to reach across the table to grab at a plate of minced pie. When his fingers could barely brush the side of the dish, he called out to Seamus.

"Oi, Seamus! SEAMUS! Be a good boy and get that for me, will ya?"

Harry couldn't resist grinning at a fuming Hermione.

"Git," Hermione rolled her eyes exasperatedly. She turned to Harry.

"Anyway, I was at the Astronomy Tower last night, and it was dark, but I was able to make out Hagrid walking back to his hut from the Forbidden Forest. His hand was heavily bandaged, and I could swear I saw patches of green on his clothes and bandages."

"Green?" Harry's eyebrows shot up.

"Green." Hermione cast a dark look at the bewildered boy next to her. Opposite him, Ron landed heavily on his seat, the entire platter of minced meat pie clattering about in his hands.

"You don't suppose Hagrid is dealing with dragons again, do you?" Harry said in a voice barely louder than a whisper. Ron, who had a slice of minced meat pie hovering before his mouth, stopped halfway.

"**Hagrid's dealing with dragons?!**" he repeated loudly in disbelief.

Before both Harry and Hermione could hiss for him to be quiet, numerous students had turned to look at the trio in curiosity and distaste, a soft buzz reverberating over the lunching crowd.

"Shut up Ron!" Hermione and Harry cried in unison.

"And maybe you should use a _Sonorus_ spell; I don't think the rest of Hogwarts heard you," Harry added scathingly.

Ron shrunk back into his seat; his pie sitting abandoned on his plate, as if in remorse.

"I didn't mean–"

Harry cut him off. "Forget it, Ron! Let's visit Hagrid afterwards. I'm sure–"

Before he could finish, they heard a sneering voice the trio had no trouble recognizing.

"Funny, 5 years hanging out with oafs like these, and you're still not used to their stupidity?"

The student body surrounding Harry's table were now quietly watching as Draco swaggered towards the Gryffindor table, Crabbe and Goyle flanking him.

Harry sighed resignedly before turning around to face the blondie.

"My friends are oafs?" He purposefully sized Crabbe and Goyle up. "If they're what you call oafs, I wonder what you call these idiots." – He gestured towards the massive boys – "Trolls?" To this, Crabbe and Goyle turned a bright shade of pink, but deficient as they were, looked expectantly to Draco to help them. The blonde's eyes narrowed as the Gryffindor students murmured amusedly.

"I have the idea that you're jealous of me, Malfoy." Harry added coolly.

"Jealous... Of what? I don't want a foul scar right across my head, thanks. I don't think getting your head cut open makes you that special, myself. And besides," his voice now a low hiss. "If Weasley's brains were dynamite, he wouldn't have enough to sneeze."

It was now Crabbe and Goyle's turn to snigger.

Harry raised his eyebrows. "Really? I've always had the idea that the glow of your intellect wouldn't light the inside of a thimble."

Malfoy looked angrier than Harry had ever seen him; he felt a kind of detached satisfaction at the sight of his pale, pointed face contorted with rage. He still wasn't prepared to give up, though.

"Compared to the Mudblood sniveling pitifully to herself during the Masked Ball because she was rejected, I think I'm pretty safe, thank you very much." Draco cited. He bent over, his tall figure crouching low as he brought his hands to his face, pretending to sob dejectedly and trying to look as vulnerable and pathetic as possible. "Oh boo-hoo-boo," He sniffed in a shrill, piercing voice. "The boy I've got a crush on was sucking the face off another girl, oh boo-hoo-hoo!"

It was a low blow, but it could hit a tide high.

He straightened up to bask in the success of his insult. Practically everyone in the Great Hall was hooting with laughter. Apparently, Draco had done an excellent job spreading the word about his encounter with Hermione a few nights earlier.

Confused, Harry glanced at Hermione, expecting an explanation, only to find that she was not there. He looked up to find that the witch had suddenly sprung from her seat with her wand stabbed in Draco's direction.

The latter's smirk blew out like a lightbulb the moment he saw what was coming.

"_Oppugno_!(1)" she shrieked, her expression livid: A flock of bats erupted from the end of her wand, speeding like an angry swarm of bees at Draco who yelped and covered his face with his hands, but the bats attacked, clawing and biting at every bit of flesh they could reach.

"Help!" Draco cried haplessly, but Hermione was already marching out of the vicinity.

Pandemonium struck next - students, desperate to get away, ran helter-skelter in every direction possible. Others started erupting in raucous laughter – Wannabe heroes attempted to erase the spell, only to have their incantations bid them with no response – Ron was choking over his food after laughing so hard –

Harry turned towards the teachers' table in despair. And as queer as it was, every seat was empty.

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**A/N:** I hope you enjoyed that! Constructive criticism is more than welcome. 

A few things I need to touch on...

- I wrote this chapter so I could develop my characters. If you think that it pointless, that's up to you, I guess.

(1)- I realised that in the original book, (HBP pg283) Hermione used _Oppugno_ only after she had already conjured a flock of birds. I found that rather hard to fit into this fic, however... I mean, who conjures birds in the middle of their meal!?

Purple button... :-)


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